Former Kendall Park Resident Starts Radio Station

Former Kendall Park resident Stuart Brown has always dreamed of running his own radio station. “I began in college radio in the late 1970’s as a student at Rutgers University,” he said. “By the time I graduated I was DJing six hours a week with two three-hour programs. One was a New Wave show and the other was Broadway show tunes.” His experience as an undergraduate member of WRSU-FM planted the seeds for what has recently become the culmination of his long-held goal. Last spring Brown debuted a 24/7 online Broadway music radio station, Sounds of Broadway (www.SoundsofBroadway.com). “I’ve been a huge musical theater fan since seeing the original production of Grease on Broadway in 1972,” he said. “In college, not only did I have my own Broadway program, but I was also the Fine Arts Editor of the station, which allowed me to get press seats for Broadway plays and musicals. Rutgers was only a 45 minute train ride into New York City so I was able to see a lot of shows.”

“Starting my own radio station combined my two loves—Broadway music and radio,” stated Brown, the current Director of Student Affairs at the University of Connecticut’s Waterbury Campus. “For the past 25 years, I’ve had a weekly radio program at Hartford’s Trinity College radio station, WRTC-FM, which allowed me to keep DJing. With recent advances in technology starting my own radio station actually became a goal I could attain. I can program and run the station from my home by simply using a microphone and laptop.”

According to Brown, Sounds of Broadway offers the most wide-ranging listing of music from the Off-Broadway, Broadway, and London stages. Thousands of songs from hundreds of cast recordings are in rotation, with new shows being added weekly. “My last count was something like 4,300 songs from about 540 musicals,” he said. “I feature popular and well-known shows like Wicked, My Fair Lady, and Hamilton,” he said. “But, unlike other online radio stations, I’ve included selections from more obscure or little heard of shows. I guess it’s the college educator in me. I want the station to entertain, but I also want to teach people about musical theater history." One of the central features of Sounds of Broadway is a two-hour all-request time slot from 6:00-8:00PM every night. “Everyone has their favorite songs they want to hear and this will give listeners the opportunity to do so,” said Brown, a former editor of the South Brunswick High School newspaper, The Viking Press.

Other specialty programming includes such thematic slots as “The Best of Forbidden Broadway,” “Lost in Boston (songs cut from a Broadway show’s out-of-town tryouts),” and “Nothing But Overtures.” There will also be programming corresponding with holidays, such as Halloween and Christmas; performer's birthdays; and special times of the year, such as the start of school in the fall.

Being an online radio station allows people to tune in from all over the world. “In just a few short months of launching I’ve had thousands of listeners from Australia, New Zealand, England, Germany, Canada, and, of course, all over the U.S.,” stated Brown. “Those figures should be increasing since listeners can download an iPhone or Android device app. We just got onto Amazon’s Echo device.”

Over his 40+ years in radio Brown has seen many changes. “In college everything was vinyl, unlike today,” he said. “We even had some albums on reel-to-reel tape. I remember that’s how the station received an advance copy of the debut album by The Cars. Then everything went to CDs and now it’s all digital. At the Trinity College station students come in for their shift, plug in their computers, and hit play. That’s it. It’s kind of sad. There’s no spontaneity anymore. Today’s undergraduates don’t even know the term LP and are mystified on how to cue one up.”

Sounds of Broadway can be reached at the website www.SoundsofBroadway.com. You can contact Stuart at Stuart@SoundsofBroadway.com